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Precisely - advertising, especially for larger brands, is just as much about getting you to buy stuff as it is about awareness. For example, next time you're o

by GuiA 12y ago

Precisely - advertising, especially for larger brands, is just as much about getting you to buy stuff as it is about awareness. For example, next time you're on a road trip and you have a choice between mcdonalds and a lesser known chain and you are hungry, you'll be more likely to go to the familiar McDonald's. Or you might even tell your friends about how much you don't like McDonald's ads, but in the process you just told your friends about McDonald's, thus perpuating the chain.

smsm42 12y ago
Isn't that exactly what the article said in its Drano example? If McD wanted to say "guys, we have new breakfast menu", they succeeded. Being remembered for years though is useless for that purpose. If they had to do it in annoying form that may have to do more with justifying ads budgets or seeking artistical fulfillment on the side of the ad makers than with its effectiveness. Brand recognition is definitely important but I don't think there's anybody in US past the age of 6 that doesn't know what McDonalds is. Well, maybe excluding Amish, but even that not sure. So all that theory "you told you friends about McDonalds" sounds nonsensical - I doubt there is somebody on HN who didn't know what McDonalds is and if there is, this information is probably useless for him as he doesn't have any McDonalds around him anyway and he never traveled anywhere where McDonalds is (because otherwise he'd already know about it). Of course, there's a marginal case of a traveler from a remote rainforest village coming into US for the first time and immediately visiting McDonalds basing on his past HN experience, but come on - does it really happen often enough for McD marketing to spend any time thinking about it?
- GuiA 12y ago
  Knowing something and hearing about it many times a week are two very different things. Why do you think product placement exists in shows/movies/sports/etc? Everybody knows what Nike is.

by GuiA 12y ago

smsm42 12y ago

Isn't that exactly what the article said in its Drano example? If McD wanted to say "guys, we have new breakfast menu", they succeeded. Being remembered for years though is useless for that purpose. If they had to do it in annoying form that may have to do more with justifying ads budgets or seeking artistical fulfillment on the side of the ad makers than with its effectiveness. Brand recognition is definitely important but I don't think there's anybody in US past the age of 6 that doesn't know what McDonalds is. Well, maybe excluding Amish, but even that not sure. So all that theory "you told you friends about McDonalds" sounds nonsensical - I doubt there is somebody on HN who didn't know what McDonalds is and if there is, this information is probably useless for him as he doesn't have any McDonalds around him anyway and he never traveled anywhere where McDonalds is (because otherwise he'd already know about it). Of course, there's a marginal case of a traveler from a remote rainforest village coming into US for the first time and immediately visiting McDonalds basing on his past HN experience, but come on - does it really happen often enough for McD marketing to spend any time thinking about it?

GuiA 12y ago
Knowing something and hearing about it many times a week are two very different things. Why do you think product placement exists in shows/movies/sports/etc? Everybody knows what Nike is.